


My Brother's Keeper

by Talon88



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-16
Updated: 2010-11-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 18:45:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17813444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talon88/pseuds/Talon88
Summary: This was part of a writing challenge.  I had to give an alternate ending to the Legacy of the Force series in which Jaina doesn't kill her brother.  Jacen could be killed by another person, escape, kill Jaina, or get captured.





	My Brother's Keeper

Jaina sprang towards Lord Caedus, her purple lightsaber blade a blur of motion. She swung at his armless side where he was most vulnerable. It was only sheer luck that saved Caedus' life. His knees finally buckled dropping him to the deck leaving Jaina's saber harmlessly whizzing over his head.

As she moved forward for the final blow she felt something in the Force that made her heart clench in anguish. It was Caedus screaming out through the Force warning Tenel Ka that she and Allana were in danger. At the same moment Jaina felt something else in the room. She sensed an entity...a dark ancient evil swirling around her brother. A cold fear gripped her heart as she moved toward Caedus. She brought her blade up intent on finishing this fight. As her lightsaber moved in a downward arc she deactivated her blade and brought the butt of the weapon crashing down onto his skull.

As Caedus slipped into unconscious Jaina could feel something seething with a mindless rage as it whipped around the incinerator room and then mysteriously disappeared leaving only a foul residue of evil within the Force.

"What the hell was that?" Jaina muttered in shock.

She looked back to her brother. He was bleeding profusely and she could hear the blood gurgle in his lungs. Jaina picked up his lightsaber and tossed it in the incinerator. She then limped over to the gurney pushing off the hapless body of Prince Isolder. She rolled the carrying bed toward her brother and with the last of her Force strength levitated him onto the gurney. She spread a sheet over his body and pushed him out of the room. As petite as she was she doubted she could cram two people into her Stealth X. Perhaps she could hotwire the  _Beam Racer_ ; Prince Isolder no longer had a need for it.

* * *

Jaina watched her brother as he slowly regained consciousness and silently wondered who was going to wake up: Caedus or Jacen. It really didn't matter; both were going to face the same fate. Jag came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She brought up her hand and gave his a squeeze. After her escape from the  _Anakin Solo_  she brought her brother to Jag's personal ship where Darth Caedus was put into a medically induced coma. The siblings then spent the next few days floating in Bacta to heal their injuries.

Now they were in a mining complex on Koros Major. It was a place that had the equipment she needed to keep her brother out of trouble. As an added precaution she placed caged Ysalamiri around the room.

She watched as Caedus' eyes fluttered open and blinked at the harsh lights glaring down at him. After a moment he turned toward his sister. "Jaina," he said, his voice parched.

Jaina moved over to her brother. "It's me."

He tried to move, but found himself securely strapped to a medical stretcher. "Are Tenel Ka and Allana alive?"

Jaina nodded. "Your warning got to them just in time."

A look of relief washed over her brother as tears fell from his eyes. "You should have killed me, Jaina. What I did is unforgivable. I deserve to be dead."

"True," she replied matter-of-factly. "If it all was truly your doing."

His face screwed up in confusion. "Of course I was."

Jaina kneeled down next to her brother and scrutinized at him intently. "As I was moving in for the killing blow, I felt a dark presence in the room. It wasn't like anything I have ever touched in the Force. It was strong, evil and alien. I think it was influencing you. It didn't separate from your body until the very end, when your death looked inevitable. That's why I spared your life."

She stood and flipped some switches at a nearby control panel.

Jacen looked around confused. "What are you going to do?"

Jaina sighed heavily. "If something was influencing you, you deserve another chance. The problem is this thing went undetected by the entire Jedi Order including Grand Master Luke. There is no way for me to determine your status." Her head dropped in thought. "I'm going to encase you in carbonite and have Jag stash you away. I can't risk you fooling everybody again and allowing that… _thing_ to get a foothold in our galaxy."

"What then?"

Jaina looked very tired. "I am the Sword of the Jedi. I am going to hunt down it down and kill it. Maybe then you can be saved."

She pushed a red button, and the floor panel with stretcher lowered into the carbonite freezing chamber.

"Wait," her brother called out. She was expecting him to beg for his release or convince her he was the old Jacen again, but he didn't. "Jaina, please tell Ben and Luke that I'm sorry for everything."

She snorted.

"I know that sounds like a trite platitude, but it's true." He closed his eyes. "Tell them I wish Mara was the victor on Kavan."

Jaina gazed down at her bother sadly. "Dad once told me he dreamed while encased in carbonite." She pressed the start button and there was a sudden blast of sub-zero air as the carbonite flash freezing process initiated.

"Sweet dreams, brother."

* * *

~Three Years Later~

Jacen Solo gasped as air rushed into his lungs painfully. The muscles between his ribs protested as they expanded and retracted with each breath. He attempted to move but was restrained. He strained to focus his eyes but all he could make out was blurs of light coming from the ceiling. He felt like he had just woken up from a sleeping-pill induced slumber—the type of sleep that has you waking up groggy and with the momentary panic of not knowing where you are...until you realize you're in your own bed. Unfortunately, even blind, Jacen knew he wasn't in his quarters.

He heard the soft humming of a starship. He was all too familiar with the sights and sounds of ships. This one sounded big, perhaps a Star Destroyer. There was also an echo that could be heard when an occasional alert or clunk of machinery occurred. He was in a large room, perhaps a storage area or docking bay.

He struggled against his bonds but quickly tired. It felt like his muscles had atrophied. He let his head fall back on whatever he was lying on and tried to remember where he was.

He recalled being on the  _Anakin Solo_. That memory sparked a cascade of thoughts and images. He fought his sister and was defeated. She captured him and encased him in carbonite with the promise of releasing him when she killed the entity she believed possessed him during his reign as Darth Caedus.

"Jaina?" he called out. He heard the soft footfalls of someone coming up to him. He strained his eyes, forcing them to focus. As the being walked closer she became clearer. It was a small blue skinned female that approached and finally knelt down next to him.

"Don't try to move, you have been released from the Carbonite. It may take an hour to recover your muscle control and the ability to touch the Force. Your eyesight should return soon."

"Who are you?"

The alien gave a warm smile, but Jacen noticed that the smile did not reach her icy green eyes. My name is Rokari Kam. I am a Chief of State of the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. I am a Jessar from Quaras."

Jacen's brow creased. "I thought the Jessar were a slave race."

The alien gave him an eerie smile that raised the hairs on the back of Jacen's neck. "Very good, you know your history well." She stood and paced around him. "The Jessar were freed in a successful revolt. You have been asleep for over three years and have missed much."

"Where's my sister Jaina," Jacen demanded.

The alien gave a soft light-hearted laugh. Jacen assumed it was meant to be disarming, but something in the voice felt icy and malevolent. "Oh, she's around. You'll see her soon."

She came back to him and knelt very closely Jacen, her face only a hand's length from his. "You really don't remember me?"

Jacen looked at the soft-voiced petite alien with no recognition. "I'm sorry; you have me at a disadvantage."

The alien gave a soft snicker. "Indeed I do." She stood again. "It's too bad; we had so much fun together. Oh the games we played." She reached into her tunic pocket and pulled out a knotted tassel. She brought it close to Jacen and dangled it in front of his face so he could focus on it. "Do you know what this is?"

He instantly recognized it as the object that set him on the path of destruction. He nodded. "It was something Lumiya gave to me to trick me.

"And it was I who gave her the instructions on how to make it." She gave him a feral grin. "Your mistake was interpreting the prophecies as referring to you." She laughed. "A bit narcissistic for a Jedi."

"What do you mean?"

The alien shook her head in disbelief of his ignorance. "Everything that the tassels foretold referred to me." She lifted her hand and counted off the prognostications on each finger.

"He will remake himself, he will choose the fate of the weak, he will immortalize his love, he will choose how he will be loved, he will win and break his chains, he will shed his skin and choose a new skin, he will strengthen himself through sacrifice, he will crawl through his cloak, he will know brotherhood, he will make a pet, he will strengthen himself through pain, he will be drawn from peace into conflict, he will ruin those who deny justice."

As Jacen listened to the alien he noticed his sight was slowly improving. He could now see the dark blur of items in the distance including shadowy oblong objects hanging from the ceiling. He strained his eyes but could not bring them into focus.

"He will ruin those who deny justice, but you forgot to ask, justice for whom?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "For me." She paced around him like a stalking nexu.

"He will remake himself, he will shed his skin and choose a new skin. I have done all of those including this body." She gave him a quizzical look. "Perhaps that's why you don't recognize me." She went back to Jacen morphing into something different. When she knelt down beside him again the face was familiar. It was a lithe blondish woman with soulful grey eyes. It took him a moment to remember her name. "Callista?"

She smiled as she ran a teasing finger down his cheek and along his jaw line. It may have meant to be seductive, but it only sent cold chills down his spine. "Of course Jacen. How could you forget your uncle's former lover? I remember you growing up. You always had a joke to tell. It was one of your most endearing qualities."

"You're not Callista."

Her eyes went wide. "Very perceptive, much better than your uncle, I almost had him fooled for a second. No, I'm not Callista, but she is a part of me, along with hundreds of other tormented souls sacrificed to make me stronger.

"Where's my sister," Jacen demanded.

The alien looked annoyed. "Always so demanding." She looked around the room. "She's around here somewhere." She broke into a smile as located what she was looking for. "There she is."

She walked out of Jacen's line of sight. When she returned Jacen gagged as bile crept up his throat. He turned his head away and sobbed. The faux-Callista held Jaina's decapitated head by the hair. She knelt over Jacen. "Watch," she compelled him and his head turned unwillingly toward the horrific image. Callista took her free hand and grabbed Jaina's jaw and then started manipulating the corpse's mouth like a macabre ventriloquist. "I'm the sword of the Jedi; I'm going to kill you for what you did to my brother."

The alien laughed and tossed the head across the room. Jacen could hear a wet thud as it hit the far wall.

Callista looked at Jacen arrogantly. "She was filled with self importance just like you." She stood up and went to the far wall and flicked on all the overhead lights. Jacen was temporarily blinded, but then as his eyes adjusted the room came into focus. What he saw was the most horrific sight he had ever seen. Bodies hung upside down from the ceiling most of them eviscerated with their bowels lying on the ground below. Jacen turned his head and vomited.

"You see, another prophecy complete. He will strengthen himself through pain." She turned to him, her eyes glittering with malice. "The crew of the  _Bloodfin_  knew pain. They all died very slowly and in great agony."

She moved toward Jacen and straddled him as he lay restrained on the medical stretcher. "It feels like some of your Force control may be coming back. It is time to end this game."

Jacen saw the face change once again. The mouth stretched grotesquely until it reached from ear to ear. As the mouth gaped open Jacen could see rows of sharp yellowed teeth. Hot rancid breath flowed over him as long black tongue snaked out and licked Jacen's face from his chin to forehead leaving a trail of warm slimy spittle on his face. The former Jedi and Sith Lord gagged and spit repeatedly trying to get the taste of this evil abomination out of his mouth.

"It is time for me to choose the fate of the weak, and you are weak right now." The creature gave a hideous grin allowing drool to drip out of the toothy maw. "But since you loved jokes, I will give you one last one."

"What was the last thing to go through Jacen Solo's mind before he died?" the creature asked. Jacen refused to respond.

"My teeth." She said as she bit down on his skull making a sickening cracking noise.

As his world grew dark, Jacen Solo, for the second time in his life, truly wished that he had died on Kavan.


End file.
